Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
I am not God
About final judgement
Just give it a rest -
God does salvation
We do our best
Wednesday, September 24, 2025
I am not God - doggerel
Monday, September 22, 2025
An Unhappy O. Henry Ending - poem
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
An Unhappy O. Henry Ending
His
picture is on the telescreen tonight
Stepping
onto a twin-engine executive jet
Then
posed in an easy-street seat in the back
Uniformed
crew, someone to bring him a snack
The
same smug grin he had when he dropped out of school
“I’m
tired of this nowhere town,” he sneered
“I’m
gonna go somewhere and get me a life;
I
don’t need you or any of this mess”
And
life is what he got, and a suit in orange
And
a free ride home to his nowhere town
For my Mother's Funeral - couplet
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
For my Mother’s Funeral
For my mother’s funeral
I did not sell souvenir tees
Never Carry a Rifle - poem
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
Never Carry a Rifle
Never carry a rifle
For a man
Who never carried a rifle
The Leaker Demands Informers - poem
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
The Leaker Demands Informers
Why do people inform on others—including neighbors, family members, co-workers, friends, lovers…in repressive societies?
-Informers: secrets, truths, and dignity | OUPblog
Franklin asked: what good shall I do today?
But the current regime demands that you betray -
Whom shall I report to the State today?
Everyone Has Advice for Writers - poem
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
Everyone Has Advice for Writers
There is a man…hangs odes upon hawthorns and elegies on brambles…
-As You Like It, III.ii.377-380
Who is your target audience, they ask
A pair of clevers on the telescreen
Giving their audience suggestions for publication
Ideas for making it on the writing scene:
“Target audience” is their incantation
Who is your target audience?
Is your target moving or stationary?
A paper bullseye or something edible
An enemy, a thing, an adversary
A carnivore’s luncheon spreadable?
Who is your target audience?
But a reader is not a target
She is not the object of your life -
She is the subject of her own
Respect your reader
Respect
Saturday, September 20, 2025
Red Spider Lilies in Autumn - poem
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
Red Spider Lilies
For Max
Who Magicked Autumn in with the
Spider Lilies
Red
spider lilies – we were speaking of them
And why
somehow they hadn’t yet appeared
To
call the oak leaves down upon the lawn
To
dance among their equinoctial blooms
Red
spider lilies – suddenly they are here!
Perhaps
they only waited to be invited
We
spoke, and they arose, laughing at us
And waving
happily in the afternoon breeze
Red
spider lilies – now autumn has begun
In
late September’s glowing tawny sun
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